In the space of less than 15 minutes, Gustavo Scarpa covers everything from Led Zeppelin, Steve Jobs, his faith and the TV show Friends. Not to mention his start to life at Nottingham Forest. And Rubik’s Cubes, of course.
He is a fascinating character. Someone who has quickly become popular among the dressing room and with supporters and who is keen to embrace life in a new country. He is determined to make an impression on the pitch, too.
The versatile midfielder has made a positive start to life at the City Ground since putting pen to paper as a free agent. And having arrived on Trentside already speaking very good English, he now finds himself - along with Renan Lodi, who has been at the club since the summer - drafted in to act as translator for fellow Brazilians Danilo and Felipe.
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Having disclosed that he grew up listening to rock music by the likes of The Who, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and AC/DC - courtesy of the influence of his father, Jose - Scarpa is asked if that is why he has such a strong grasp of the language. “Actually I started by watching Friends,” he explains. “That’s why my accent is American!
“My father always encouraged my sister and I to watch movies in English, so we started to watch Friends and movies with Portuguese subtitles. Before I knew it I was speaking English.
“I have watched all the seasons several times. In the beginning it was very hard to understand, but every time I watch, it becomes easier to understand the jokes.”
He definitely has a good sense of humour. The 29-year-old teases that the City Ground’s proximity to some decent skate parks helped convince him to leave Palmeiras to sign for the Reds. “Only kidding, the Premier League has always been my dream,” he adds.
Skateboarding, which he took up a couple of years ago to “refresh my mind” during a tough time in football, is just one of his many hobbies and interests. Studying philosophy is another.
“My father always encouraged me and my sister to read a lot,” Scarpa says. “When I became a Christian in 2009, I got a lot of interest to learn about the bible and then I started studying and reading a lot.
“A few years after, a friend of mine introduced me to this new world of new books like Kafka and Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. My aunt, she gave me the Steve Jobs book, and it was the first book after the Bible that really opened my mind. I started to read a lot of different books, like Dostoevsky.”
For Scarpa, broadening his horizons now extends to being keen to experience everything England has to offer. And that means adapting to the Premier League.
“It’s quite different. Ninety percent of the fouls that the referee calls in Brazil, here it’s nothing,” he says.
“Sometimes here, you’d do some tackles that in Brazil you would get a yellow card for sure and here the ref doesn’t even call a foul. This is the hardest thing to adapt to in the football, but I think I will handle it and adapt.
“I know British people, and in Europe generally, they don’t watch Brazilian football that often. But in Brazil, we watch a lot of Premier League and La Liga. To play for a great team, it makes it easier for me to be here.”
You could be forgiven for thinking that having some of his fellow countrymen at the club, in Danilo, Felipe and Lodi, would help Scarpa to feel at home; likewise the fact there is a strong Brazilian community in Nottingham. But he wants to make sure he gets the full English experience.
With his Christian faith being so important to him, that includes finding an English-speaking church. And spending time with the rest of his teammates - naturally, teaching them the ways of the Rubik’s Cube, with Morgan Gibbs-White and Ryan Yates both singled out for taking a keen interest.
“Brazilian food, Brazil? No, I came here to enjoy this new adventure. I came here to speak English,” Scarpa says.
“I already told Renan and Danilo that I don’t want to hang out with them every time! I came here to learn a new culture, to increase my English, to learn more and I think it’s very important to hang out with the guys who just speak English. It will be very important for me. I told Danilo it will be good for him to learn English, because it will be easier to adapt to everything.”
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